BOMB THE USUAL IRAQIS

BY ERIC MARGOLISTORONTO STAR
17 DECEMBER 1998

Moral crusade, or Charge
of the Light Brigade? That's the question vexing House Republicans as they face
an historic vote to impeach President William Clinton - now postponed for a
day or two by the president's desperate wag the camel attack on Baghdad.

A president who commits
perjury in court, as Clinton did repeatedly, should be ousted, or resign. No
matter how much Americans love charming Bill, Congress has a duty to enforce
the law. Still, it's most unfortunate the only crime
investigators managed to pin on slippery, super-lawyer Clinton arose from Monica's
loose lips.

Impeaching a president over
a trivial sexual escapade - even if he did lie about it - sticks in the throats
of Americans, who are royally fed up with the whole tawdry business. Republicans
will pay dearly in the next election for this unpopular inquisition, pundits
warn.

Clinton's counter-attack
began last week. First came the smiling photo-ops of Clinton doing the statesman
shtick in
Israel and Gaza. Meanwhile, in Washington, Democrats were loudly warning that
if Clinton were impeached and - God forbid - tried by the Senate, there would
be no one to run the world, not to mention the USA, and just when malefactors
like Saddam Hussein were waiting to strike.

Next, bomb the usual Iraqis!
The Clinton Administration ordered UN arms inspectors to raid Baath party headquarters
in Baghdad, Saddam's political nerve center, an act guaranteed to provoke the
Iraqis. Baghdad reacted right on cue, denying the intelligence agents called
`inspectors' admission to these highly sensitive political offices.

Either Saddam was thoughtfully
trying to help Bill Clinton out of the mother of all political jams, or else
Clinton had
succeeded in provoking a major foreign crisis right when the House was about
to pillory the philandering president.

Bombing Baghdad is always
the tonic of choice for ailing presidents. However, the world's one billion
Muslims are about to begin celebrating the holy month of Ramadan, and Christian
Arabs the Christmas season. In the Mideast game, carpet bombing Muslims during
Ramadan is considered a definite no- no. Still, Clinton seems to have decided
infuriating the entire Muslim world against America is worth the boost blasting
Iraq it will give his endangered presidency.

Mideast charades aside,
are Democrats right when they claim the US cannot function if the president,
Senate, and chief justice of the Supreme Court are tried up in a trial? Absolutely
not. Such claims remind me of a friend who runs a big corporation. Every time
he goes on a trip, his aged mother asks, `so who's watching the business?'

The US government is not
a candy store. It can function very well for a while without the president or
Congress. In
fact, their temporary inactivity is of benefit to the republic. America needs
less government, not more activist intervention. New laws, regulations, and
pork can wait. The nation will somehow survive a month without new Clinton photo-ops,
or hugely expensive made-for-TV military demonstrations.

There's even a positive
side to the whole impeachment mess. When many Americans actually believe they
can't survive for a moment without the president, it's clear the imperial presidency
has grown far too strong. Congress, not the president, is the prime branch of
government, the voice of the people. The media promotes a false impression that
the monarch-president makes the whole system function, and without him, it will
collapse. The ex-gov of Arkansas is not Louis XIV.

When the president travels
with a 1,200-man entourage worthy of a Ming Emperor, when the world breathlessly
awaits White House pronouncements, it's time to return this office to modesty,
as intended by the Founding Fathers. Clinton has repeatedly shown he feels himself
above the law, scorning Congress and refusing to respond to its requests. Such
cavalier arrogance convinced many wavering Republicans to vote for impeachment.